Customer Reviews

The Paper Grail

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The quiet curator of a small museum in California has no idea what he's getting into when he begins a trip to claim a rare Japanese sketch for his museum. He finds himself in the middle of a life-and-death struggle for the Paper Grail, an origami cup with mystical powers over land and water. Blaylock slips adeptly from the everyday to the sublime, pitting unlikely heroes -- failed small businessmen and eccentrics -- against some pretty likely villains of our time: greedy real estate tycoons and cynics who would use the Grail's powers for their own aggrandizement rather than the good of the land. You're more likely to enjoy this beautifully written, highly literate book if you have read a good deal of Arthurian literature and if you're familiar with the Pre-Raphaelite artists of the late Victorian period. Fans of Tim Powers' _Last Call_ should definitely read _Paper Grail_: to judge by the dedications, the two authors were probably trading ideas the whole time they were writing.

I love James Blaylock and his quirky, fun, bizarre, mysterious and hilarious novels and this one has to be my favorite. In point of fact, I gave this to my wife to read and it instantly became her favorite book as well. Now how often do married people ever agree? That's how good this book is.

Blaylock weaves an enthralling and soothing world that you love to enter and populates it with not-your-normal people; off-kilter and unlikely, yet intensely lovable heroes and comic-opera, bumbling yet really aggravating villains. Nothing quite like him anywhere, although Tim Powers (who is a friend and collaborator in novels sometimes) has a similar voice.

So go get youself this book, give yourself a night off, and have yourself a heck of good time. You'll never regret reading this one!

This is the 2nd best Blaylock I've read (best: The Last Coin) and has all the classic Blaylock plot elements: an assortment of quirky characters in a northern California backwater, and a mystic treasure with its aging guardians pitted against the bizarre machinations of a grotesque, eccentric villian. Nothing like fast-paced action but a marvellous unfolding of plots and characters.

The Paper Grail is a delicious tale of an ordinary fellow, Howard, called north by clouds and a pelican to fufill his destiny among a cast of marvelous eccentrics. The book is in modern America, Northern California, or rather it reveals part of the true America, a mystically foggy land where circles of secret combatants are competing for an age-old power. The plot traces this contest between the two rival bands through Howard's, the newcomer's, eyes. Along the way, all life's ordinariness is overturned, exposing subtle mysteries and mystical practices. Folksy eccentricity rules the day, both in the actions of the modern-day characters and with all the historical tie-ins to the likes of John Ruskin and G.K. Chesterton. The villainess, Heloise Lamey, contributes a satisfying evilness to the plot; she is quaint and pitiful while also being grostesque and frightening. The mystical battle is strongly interwoven with the reality of twentieth-century life, paying rent, making a living, arson, sabotaged brakes...it's a wonderful merger. As a bonus, a romantic subplot is developed throughout the book between Howard and his cousin, Sylvia. The pace of the book cultivates a magical, drifting ambience. The plot hangs together, but one must be willing to put aside contemporary fast-action expectations and allow the book to unfold and enjoy its poetic wanderings. Blaylock's work can change your life, bringing more whimsical smiles into your life.

I've known people who have lived in California and they never said it was anything like this. Perhaps if it was more like Blaylock's books and less like reality (that being earthquakes and mudslides and the constant feeling that the entire state is going to fall into the ocean . . . but darn isn't the weather nice?) I'd want to actually move there. In any event, in the hands of Blaylock the state and the entire coast becomes a magical place full of mystery and mundanity at the same time. Oddball characters strive for a powerful piece of paper while at the same time trying to pay their rent and get a date. All the people in this book are wonderfully strange (if they're the good guys) or bizarrely strange (if they're evil) but it gives the book a certain angle that very few of today have, the constant contrast between what's normal and what's magical and the thin line that separates them is great. It's fantasy that can exist without elves and trolls and stuff and still be epic and be finished in a concise three hundred pages without an entire two thousand year history. It's about real people and real magic and the things that it can make you do. Both good and bad. Simply put, it's for people who want to be entertained while at the same time immerse themselves in a place that's not all that different from where they might live. No matter how normal they're life might seem.

This was the first Blaylock novel I ever read, and it hooked me hard. Probably best labeled as Contemporary Fantasy, many of his books paint a world of eccentric heroes and off-beat villains, locked into bizarrely-magical combat in suburban America. 'The Paper Grail' puts an entirely new twist on the grail legend. Howard Barton, genial and somewhat bumbling curator, drives to Mendocino, California to acquire a 19th-century woodcut drawing for his museum's collection. In the process, he hopes to mend fences with his childhood sweetheart, Sylvia, and recapture the spark of romance that's been missing from his life ever since. Laying his hands on the drawing turns out to be a lot more difficult than he expects, and reconnecting with Sylvia isn't much easier. Along the way, he stumbles into the middle of a quiet but desperately earnest battle over the Holy Grail. To the keeper of the Grail goes incalculable power, and all the wrong people want it for all the wrong reasons.

Jeff Edwards, Author of "Torpedo: A Surface Warfare Thriller"

A book a bit too long. Rather difficult to characterize. Not bad but not very good. A story I was eager to discover and found dragging on. The main interest of this book lies in the uncanny atmosphere JB creates to make you believe the world is not what you know it is.

The first edition was released through the Science Fiction Book Club. It is a boring, tearse, dreary read. Imagine if Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft were working together with (assistance from P.K. Dick for scenery) to produce a novel to put people to sleep. Every once in a while, something mildly interesting might show up to be a plot point, but then the book completely ignores it until much later. I gave up on the book, and didn't bother to finish it, something I almost never do. Save your time and money.